As a torch relay runner for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, second year junior high school student Teppei Miyata had planned to run near the Aso Bridge in his village in Kumamoto Prefecture, which collapsed during the April 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. Then the games were postponed to next summer, due to the worldwide spread of COVID-19.
“I wanted many people to see how the village had rebuilt itself,” said Miyata, 13.
But Michiko Goto, his 67-year-old grandmother who recommended he apply for the torch relay, is encouraging him to look on the bright side, noting that the postponement will allow him to run through the newly constructed Aso Bridge.